Yay laundry!

I thought this photo (a reminder not to make a mess of the common room?) would be more interesting than one of clean clothes.

Why the laundry excitement? Well, washing machines need 6 $1 coins and dryers need $1 for every 7 minutes. And $1 coins=impossible to find. If only the machines took $2 coins or the Octopus...hopefully the cephalopod won't fail me again. Somehow my wallet also ended up with the most useless coins ever, for 50, 20 and 10 cents. Actually, they'll make the cheapest souveneirs ever...unless I give some to you, in which case they're both valuable and difficult to find.

So anyway, I would've been clean-laundry-less for another day if I hadn't needed to buy textbooks and remembered to ask for the $9 change in $1 coins. I spent much less on textbooks than usual, partly because I can buy them in paperback and partly because I don't know. Maybe I'll sell them and make a profit.

Today I had Economics of the Family. I thought the course sounded really interesting, but the professor told me I'm the first exchange student--ever--to register for it. Maybe I should feel special? Mostly I felt left out because as soon as he told us to form groups everyone switched to Cantonese. And the only Cantonese I know is "hello" and "thank you." But I ended up in a group and the professor seemed nice and kept asking me questions--probably thrilled I'm a non-local. He's actually taught in the U.S. before, Brown University I think. His one rule: NO chatting during lectures. Apparently Hong Kong students usually do, a habit developed during boring high school classes. He said in the U.S. students will never talk during lectures, but they'll walk out on boring ones. Hm...

Class let out early so I dawdled about before Financial Economics in Main Building 01. It's the room I never would have found on my own because I thought that hallway only contained lavatories. The classroom is actually a small auditorium with comfy seats and a tray that folds out from the side. The professor stands on the stage and talks into a microphone. The class doesn't have more than 20 students.

I bought textbooks after class and hung out with a friend until dinner. We were both extremely bored and are hoping our classes pick up soon. Thankfully fencing starts next week. And we're also thinking of joining the yoga class offered through the Integrated Learning Programme, but full-time students get priority. Some of the other options: squash, muay-thai boxing, cha cha cha, dragon boat workshop, woodball workshop...Woodball doesn't even have a Wikipedia article, but it appears to be a cross between croquet and golf.

We went to the Chinese restaurant for dinner, hoping for dim sum, but they weren't serving it--so we were stuck with the expensive (relative to the canteen) menu options. We decided on the four dishes (two Korean friends joined us) suggested to us and shared. YUM. First we nibbled on some peanuts, then we sipped a chicken and pork soup. I don't know exactly what the dishes were or which was my favorite. A tie between the tofu (still can't believe tofu's tastiness) pork and rice noodles and the fried fish in an orange sauce. We also had a dish that reminded me of Chinese takeout--baby corn, mushrooms, other vegetables I forget all stir-fried together. And the last dish...well that's awkward, I totally forget...I'm positive I enjoyed it, but it must have just been another kind of veggie combination.

And of course jasmine tea and little bowls of rice.

Also, surprise dessert! We had no idea! (that it came with the meal or what it was) It looked like charcoal, the kind someone would drink after swallowing poison. Our waitress told us it was made of mashed up rice and peanuts, by which she probably meant black beans. I've actually seen this dessert in the supermarket (in a powdered form for mixing with water, maybe?) so I'll return tomorrow and learn the name. It tasted alright...well, not exactly...but I kept eating it anyway because it intrigued me so much.

Then I wandered and talked with a friend...laundry...

Sorry my life's turned temporarily boring. I'll aim for an adventure tomorrow.